This post is about my visit to the Auschwitz and Birkenau Concentration Camps. It’s distressing to write about and I debated whether to publish this particular travel photography for a long time.
On the one hand, it’s the most awful horror story. But, on the other hand, we need to learn about such evil acts from the past and do everything we can to prevent them from happening again.
So, after much reflection, I’ve decided to share these photos with you. We can’t do anything to prevent what happened here. But we can all do our best to help ensure such horrors are never repeated. This is my way of doing a little bit to help educate future generations.
A time to reflect and mourn
At the very least, by publishing these photos, it gives us all a time to reflect and mourn the people who perished here.
Speaking as a freelance travel photographer who has seen some awful things on my travels, visiting the Auschwitz and Birkenau Concentration Camps affected me very deeply indeed. Every decent human being would feel the same way.
I’d often read that you won’t hear birdsong here, despite this being a heavily forested area. I used to think that might be an urban myth. But now I know it’s true. It’s hard to describe, but you sense the evil that happened here from deep inside your soul.
I’ll let my images do the talking
I always pride myself in learning everything about the places I visit. But, on this occasion, the facts are too distressing to write about. So this time I’ll provide some authoritative links at the end of this post if you want to learn more. I’ll simply let my photos do the talking this time.
Click on the photos to view full size:
Learn more about Auschwitz and Birkenau:
- You can learn more about the Auschwitz and Birkenau Concentration Camps on the official website here.
- Or you can learn more about the distressing facts on Wikipedia here.
- Auschwitz and Birkenau are situated approximately 70km from the city centre of Kraków in Poland. There are numerous day tours from the city. The journey is about an hour each way by coach.
Related Topics
I normally link you to my related topics. On this occasion there is nothing to relate to what happened here, thankfully. All I can do this time is point you to my work as a travel photographer. Thank you.
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